Chapter 37 - Visions of Past and Future
"Damned street mutts, thinking you can walk into my home and do whatever you want...touching my things and jinxing my luck..." The man muttered furiously under his breath, eyes glued to the wristwatch in Euri's palm.
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"Didn't you hear me? Place the watch down and fucking KNEEL!"
The view of Mr. Vernon, standing a whole foot taller than Euri, and four times as wide in the torso, roaring at him like a hungry bear, was enough to send Euri reeling back a couple of steps, his back hitting the doorframe.
And that sensation gave birth to a rudimentary plan in his messy mind. Euri pocketed the wristwatch, kicked himself off the doorframe, floated backwards into the bedroom, and slammed the door shut in less than a second.
Two seconds later, a heavy knock banged on the door from the other side. Several cracks formed around the door latch immediately. The frail nails would never stand a chance against Vernon's weight.
Euri grabbed a not so heavy desk from nearby and flung it at the door. Vernon crashed into the door from his side once again, but failed again to break it down.
Snatching the opportunity, Euri smashed a steel chair on the bedroom window repeatedly, bending one of the narrower bars to make enough of a gap for him to slide into.
Boom!
Vernon's furious assault on the door finally produced the desired result. The nails and the latch flew off, and the door tumbled over the desk, clearing Vernon's entry into the bedroom.
Euri turned around and hurled the steel chair like a plastic toy towards the fast approaching monster. Neither he, nor Vernon expected the speed at which it took flight.
The man managed to avoid being hit by its full momentum, but one of the chair's legs banged off his jaw, disorienting him for a couple of seconds.
A couple of seconds was all Euri really needed. Adrenaline lit fire in his veins as he grabbed the bent metal bar of the window and exerted every inch of power in his four limbs and core in widening the gap.
Five more centimeters!
"Aaaaaaaggghhh!"
Three more centimeters!
"I'm gonna kill you, you son of a-"
One-
Euri used the remainder of his strength to force his body into the gap between the bent bars. The skin of his waist, the clothes over them too, were torn off brutally as he dragged himself past the rough edges, strips of blood blooming over whitish exposed flesh.
Vernon's stretched grasp only managed to latch onto the torn clothing strips as Euri jumped to his feet on the other side and took off towards the empty street like a rocket.
He didn't look back. He didn't want to go save his fallen comrades. The liability would not weigh on his conscience.
Vernon wouldn't be bold enough to kill them.
So Euri ran until his feet could take it no more.
As the adrenaline rush began to subside, his lungs started burning. Searing pain formed a belt around his midsection. The run was certainly not helping his injuries.
He had already reached the metro station, far outside Vernon's reach. Resting and tending to the wounds was of more importance now. So he headed into a small pharmacy for kits and disinfectants.
While the concerned clerk was helping him apply bandage strips, Euri's comcell vibrated. His mother's ID showed up on the small screen. It was rare for her to contact him during school hours. Euri opened the message with a sense of trepidation.
[ Your father and I got laid off again. The new manager said the same thing as the previous one. The local head of operations suddenly ordered the layoff, no explanations attached. But these guys were nice enough to pay some compensation. ]
The sensation of pain burning around his waist was submerged by a hollow vortex that seemed to suck in Euri's innards. He forgot to tend to his wounds, letting the clerk handle the rest as he stared at the comcell screen, rereading her message.
After reading it for the seventh time, Euri was about to turn the screen off, but another message took its place, this one from his father.
Fingertip shaking, Euri opened it and took a deep breath.
[ Something went wrong in the worksite today. Your mother and I have been given a brief break (fully compensated). We have decided to go visit your sister in Vortex District during this break. We'll leave by the time you're back from school. Be careful in home. I'm sending the daily expenses to your account. ]
Sure enough, there was an update in his online account, of a transfer of 4000 credits. This much money was far beyond what their family considered as ordinary daily expenses. How high was the compensation?
He quietly sent a text to his mother, asking the question. She took a long time to reply.
[ Don't worry about money. We kept enough to ourselves for the trip. It'll last us a couple of weeks, at least. ]
Expenses of two people for a couple of weeks wouldn't cross 1000 credits. He knew his parents originally had just about that much in their accounts. So Euri became certain that his parents had sent the entire compensation amount to him.
Then the reason why his father was lying about visiting his sister became a little clearer. So many layoffs and refusals could not be a coincidence!
They probably understood that they had somehow offended some bigshot unknowingly, and looking for jobs in Peacock District would now be futile. They were leaving the district to test the theory!
But who could it be?!
Euri couldn't think of any person, any reason behind this mysterious phenomenon. The closest presumption he had was that his parents were being targeted by the Faceless Cult. But he had already killed the only people who knew his identity and location.
If they still somehow came to know the information, they could just break into his house at night and do what they wanted. There was no need to play such an elaborate, meaningless game.
Standing at the edge of a busy intersection, Euri's vacant gaze wandered across the sky, the skyscrapers, and the comcell screen that displayed his bank account status.
Remnants of the past, flashes of the present, and visions of the future coagulated into one in his head—one test, that his heart was creating for his very own self.
Euri turned around and headed back towards the suburb he had just escaped from. This test of his heart had to be resolved, so that the visions of his future looked less gloomy.